Denver Mayor Michael Hancock speaks to supporters after winning a second term in the May 5, 2011, election. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

For all the controversy surrounding big flood-control projects proposed in northeast Denver, one voice has been quiet on the subject in recent months — that of Mayor Michael Hancock.

Opponents have questioned the scope of the projects, for which the estimated cost recently grew to $267 million to $298 million. They’ve challenged the details, including plans to create a detention area on City Park Golf Course, and have threatened to sue to stop the plans. Most of all, critics have seized on connections between the city flood projects and the state’s Interstate 70 expansion plan, suggesting officials have misrepresented the need in neighborhoods and the benefits they would receive to mask I-70 as the real impetus.

“I think one of the things that we’ve got to always remember is that when you look across the country and these kind of projects come up, whether they’re in Boston or in L.A. or whatever, there’s always controversy,” Hancock said. “The key is for us to stay at the table and always be working through them. And how can we make each project better for everyone?”

Rep. J. Paul Brown is used to House Democrats in the majority smacking down the legislation he and his fellow Republicans hold dear. So you can’t blame the rancher from Ignacio for being all smiles after the chamber gave a 65-0 blessing to his bill to study water storage on Colorado’s bone-dry Eastern Plains.

“We’re always depending on the federal government for our storage,” he said after the House adjourned Thursday after handing him a significant victory. “Finally we’re going to do something in Colorado. At least we’re going to study it, and that’s a start.”

The legislation, if it passes in Senate, where Brown’s fellow Republicans have a majority, it would study the volume of water Colorado has a right to store and use that is instead being lost to Nebraska via the South Platte River. It would look at where a reservoir could be located and how much it might cost.

A rainbow appears after a brief rain Oct. 18, 2015 at Colorado’s state Capitol building. (Brent Lewis, The Denver Post)

The state Capitol steps are going to be awfully busy Friday afternoon. A group of Donald Trump supporters angry about how all the delegates were awarded Ted Cruz at last weekend’s state Republican Party Convention are planning a protest from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Meanwhile an anti-corruption group called Represent.Denver has a rally from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

I wrote about the Trump rally — and one in support of the state GOP at the party headquarters in Greenwood — here.

Represent.Denver plans to call on elected leaders to support a national anti-corruption act.

UPDATED, Tuesday 3 p.m.: For the second day in a row, Republican lawmakers attempted and failed to defund efforts to advance the Clean Power Plan in Colorado. But the money for the state’s air pollution division remains in jeopardy.

The latest came Tuesday when the Senate considered a supplemental budget bill for the Department of Public Health and Environment. Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, proposed a $200,000 cut from department’s budget based on estimates from the agency about how much it will spend on the Clean Power Plan efforts.

A month from today, New Era Colorado will have a new captain in charge of its ship. The left-leaning organization that mobilizes young Coloradans around public policy and voting will be led by Lizzy Stephan, who is taking over for New Era’s founder, Steve Fenberg.

Stephan has been a part of the organization since 2012. She ran what New Era characterizes as Colorado’s largest voter registration drive for the 2014 midterm election, when she was its organizing director. Stephan is currently New Era’s deputy director.

She is a graduate of Colorado College and serves on the Board of Directors for the Colorado BlueFlower Fund, which helps female candidates who are Democrats and pro-choice to run for local and state offices.

After assisting with a costly campaign in 2014 to fight a potentially expensive requirement to label all foods containing GMOs, the Colorado Farm Bureau was dismayed after a ban on such state laws died on a 49-48 vote in the U.S. Senate Wednesday. The legislation on genetically modified foods needed 60 votes to clear a procedural hurdle.

Don Shawcroft, president of Colorado Farm Bureau, called out Colorado’s Democratic senator, Michael Bennet of Denver, for voting against the measure and praised Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, for voting for it.

“We are surprised that Senator Bennet would vote against this GMO labeling legislation in the Senate. In 2014, 65 percent of Colorado voters opposed mandatory GMO labeling.” Shawcroft said in a statement Thursday. “Instead of voting to pass common-sense legislation that allows companies to decide, Sen. Bennet instead decided to allow one Northeast state to restrict options and increase prices for Colorado residents.”

Rep. J. Paul Brown said Friday that it’s in the entire state’s best interest to study the potential of one or more reservoirs on the Eastern Plains in the South Platte River basin to capture Colorado water before it flows away to Nebraska.

The bill passed out of the Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee, 13-0, this week. The Republican from Ignacio saw a similar piece of legislation he sponsored get smacked down by the Democrat-led House Appropriations Committee over its $937,959 price tag. A leaner version this year comes in at $211,168. The bill now heads back to the House Appropriations Committee.

“It’s just a really important issue for the whole state,” Brown said. “It’s real important that we store that water we’re entitled to instead of losing it to Nebraska. We don’t have enough water on the Western Slope to keep sending more to the Front Range.”

Sen. Matt Jones is a former wildland firefighter, here during the Dome fire in Boulder County in 2010.

Sen. Matt Jones says clean power means reducing climate change. And those who fight wildfires in the West — people such as him — see firsthand the effects of a hotter, drier planet. Seeing is believing in President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, from Jones’ point of view.

In an essayMonday, Jones said some Colorado lawmakers “don’t have that clean-Colorado vision.”

“They are running legislation, at the behest of corporate polluters and out-of-state billionaires, to make it impossible to clean up our energy supply or advance the Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon pollution,” Jones wrote.

Colorado’s plan is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules aimed at reducing carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Rep. Lori Saine, a Republican from Firestone, says in an essay that critics of oil-and-gas production have no monopoly on loving the environment or the well-being of their families.

Saine writes of her support for energy development with her confidence in environmental studies and the benefits the industry holds for Colorado’s economy.

“I too want my family to breathe clean air, drink safe water and enjoy the beautiful Colorado environment,” Saine wrote in an essay. “This unfounded notion that only critics of fracking and oil and natural gas are concerned about our safety and well-being is simply theatrics.”

Sen. Ray Scott, left, and Democratic state Rep. Jonathan Singer, right, escort Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper to the state House chambers to deliver his State of the State address in 2015. (Photo By Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

Sen. Ray Scott is considering a run for governor in 2018 and would look to bring down the expenses of government to invest in such priorities as transportation, higher education and rural broadband Internet, the Mesa County Republican said Saturday. If he gets in the race and wins, Scott would be the first Western Slope candidate to win the governor’s office in 64 years.

Scott, a fiscal conservative, points to “a lot of fat” in state spending, citing the growing costs of Medicaid to a state budget that needs to be managed more conservatively, he said. Scott also would boost the state’s economy by supporting responsible energy development. He said he has middle-of-the-road positions on the divisive issues of abortion and state access to federal public lands.

“We’ve had a lot of governors from the Front Range 1-25 corridor,” Scott said. “Maybe people are ready for something different.”

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.